Posts tagged ‘#elxn41’

Earlier this week, a colleague of mine (@ivox_pierre) sent me the job posting below that appeared on Craigslist in Toronto for an hour or two on March 28, 2011. At first I dismissed it as a joke. The more I thought about this ad, though, the more I pondered several questions around authenticity and acceptability of this political trolling. The big one was:

Is this ethical behaviour?

The easy answer is “no,” regardless of your political stripe. But are there exceptions to this rule? Is there a grey area here? If so, what are the ground rules?

In the past, even I have been asked to use my social networks to support candidates, but the rules were clear:

Ensure you honestly believe in what you are saying online

Make sure it is truthful and accurate

These rules are in stark contrast to the requirements in the job posting below:

We all know it’s not OK to encourage people to spread falsehoods; but is it OK to offer to pay people to promote your poitical angle?

In the interest of balance, I also found that a very similar ad was posted for left-wing writers. I don’t have the actual ad, but Google provides some evidence:

Regardless of whether your beliefs fall on the right, left, or centre of the spectrum, is this practice acceptable? What are the ground rules?